Paleo Homemade Chocolate Hazelnut Butter (vegan)

This naturally sweetened chocolate hazelnut butter spread has just four ingredients and only takes minutes to make!

I already have a chocolate peanut butter spread recipe up, but this one is a little different (other than the whole nut type thing). This chocolate hazelnut spread uses Dutch process cocoa powder for the chocolate flavor and coconut sugar to sweeten.

(You know what’s lame? I just realized I threw some chocolate in the background of these pictures. Haha. Yeah. Ignore that! It’s just representative. ;))

The chocolate peanut butter uses a little cocoa powder, but mostly chocolate chips to flavor and sweeten it, meaning this hazelnut butter is technically a little healthier. Sugar is sugar but if you like to naturally sweeten stuff, this is your recipe!

It also means that this version is naturally dairy-free and vegan. And like the peanut butter, naturally gluten-free!

I originally wanted to call this “Healthy Homemade Nutella” but Mr. Texanerin, the Nutella fiend that he is, heard of my plans and his response? “NO! Absolutely not!” Apparently this is just chocolate hazelnut butter. I hope you can cope. ;)

To be honest, he’s correct in that this chocolate hazelnut butter doesn’t taste much like Nutella. Or okay – at all. It’s not as smooth and not nearly as sweet, but it is chocolatey. And much more hazelnut-y. Chocolatey using cocoa powder and not that much sugar.

I used a range of amounts for both of those ingredients, just because I have quite the sweet tooth and don’t like dark chocolate, so the amount of sugar I use might not (and hopefully won’t be!) what you need.

I’ve used this hazelnut butter a few times in no-bake recipes in place of Nutella and it’s worked out well so far. I’ve also used it in these chocolate banana muffins without a problem.

In those, the hazelnut butter is just a swirl on top of the muffins and not mixed into the batter. If you want to make something where Nutella is called for and mixed in with the batter, I’m not positive how that’d work out. I guess I need to experiment!

I normally use blanched and roasted hazelnuts when I make this recipe because I’m lazy and hate blanching nuts, but I’ve included the directions on how to roast and then de-skin the nuts just a little.

Ingredients

1/4 – 1/2 cup (50 – 100 grams) coconut sugar or granulated sugar for a non-paleo version (do not use a liquid sub!)

1/8 teaspoon salt

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350°F (176°C) and place the hazelnuts on a rimmed baking sheet. There should only be a single layer. Use more baking sheets, if necessary.

Roast the nuts for 15 minutes, stirring after every 5 minutes. The hazelnuts will be fragrant when ready and the skins will start to crack. Place the nuts in the center of a spread-out clean kitchen towel. Bundle it up and then rub the nuts together to remove the skin. This should remove about half of the skin and that's enough. The nuts should still be warm but not super hot at this point. If they are hot, wait for a few minutes, until they're just warm, before placing in the food processor. Also be sure not to let the nuts cool down completely – it'll process quicker if the nuts are still warm.

Transfer the roasted nuts, being careful to not include the skin, to a food processor and process until it’s very creamy like peanut butter. It’ll depend on your food processor, but it took mine about 3–5 minutes.

Add 3 tablespoons of cocoa powder, 1/4 cup sugar, and the salt. Add more cocoa powder and sugar to taste.

Sorry for my slow reply! I just now saw this. If you want to use peanuts, you could make my chocolate peanut butter spread recipe. :) If you want to experiment with this recipe, use the same amount of whatever nuts in place of the hazelnuts.

Hi there, today I tried hazelnut butter, I did not look up a recipe until I had already started. Needless to say I did not roast or skin the nuts. There was bitterness but after I added coconut sugar it solved the problem. Next time I will take the skins off.. Can they be blanched to get skins removed then roast them?. Thanks for sharing.

They can! Check out the paragraph before the recipe box. And in the recipe box, I wrote how I take care of the skins, which I think is a little easier. :) I hope that helps and your next batch will come out better!

Hi Erin, I tried your recipe. I did substitute maple sirup for the coconut sugar but it turned the nutella so thick and dough-like that I had to add water until it was more spreadable. Not sure why? I used my Thermomix and processed the nuts first to the perfect creamy consistency. Any thoughts or has this happened to you before? It was still totally delicious though. Thanks, Anja

Hi, Anja! I’m sorry that happened. That seems to happen whenever you add liquid to homemade nut butters. It’s happened to me several times! It turns perfect nut butter into a clumpy, unpleasant texture. That’s why I don’t even add vanilla to my nut butters (though I’m sure vanilla bean seeds would work!) I’ve added a note to the recipe warning people not to use any liquids in the recipe. Sorry again and I hope your next attempt will go better! :)

Hi Erin,
thanks so much for your reply. I will try this the next time. One more question in regard to your peanut butter spread (which I also want to try). I noticed it does use a “liquid” in form of melted chocolate. Have you had any trouble with that one becoming to thick? Thanks.
By the way, do you still live in Germany? Is your book available in a German version as well?

No problem! I haven’t had any trouble with the chocolate peanut butter becoming thick. It’s true that melted chocolate is liquid but chocolate is solid when not warmed up, so I guess that’s why it works in that recipe. :) When kept at room temperature, the chocolate peanut butter is nice and creamy like you see in the pictures. It gets hard in the fridge, though (unlike this chocolate hazelnut butter recipe, which stays soft when refrigerated!) I do still live in Germany and my book is available on German Amazon here but it’s unfortunately not translated. I wrote it for an international audience so grams are included in every recipe as well as some ingredient tips for people outside of the US. There are some recipes that use white whole wheat flour, which doesn’t exist in Germany, that you won’t be able to make, but the rest are doable here in Germany. :)

I believe the issue with adding syrups (agave, honey or maple) to nut butters is that syrup is water-based, whereas nut butter is oil-based. Since oils and water do not mix, the addition of maple syrup caused the butter to ‘seize up’.

Chocolate is largely fat (oil-based), so whether it is liquid or solid, it will blend with the nut butter.

If the butter seizes up on contact with water-based liquids, I have found that adding even more water-based liquids (milk or water) will eventually relax the mixture until it is creamy enough to fool my kids!

Thanks for your comment! That makes total sense. I actually had this issue today when some water landed in some no-bake cookie mixture I was boiling! It’s good to know that adding more water-based liquid can help solve the problem. Thanks again. :)

Oh My! Erin, your recipe is fantastic. Keeping in the spirit of Paleo, I substituted three pitted dates for the sugar and consistency-wise, I think it turned out alright. But as you say, sugar is sugar.
3 dates = 14g of sugar

It’s just sweet enough for my taste and the hazelnut and dark cocoa flavours shine through. Thanks so much for sharing.

Can you tell me why you chose coconut sugar? I’ve used it in a few other recipes and I’m just wondering it’s benefits over white sugar or something like honey? My kids and I just made it and it is to. die. for. Thanks!

I’m so happy that you and your kids enjoyed it! They say that sugar is sugar is sugar but I prefer using natural sweeteners like coconut sugar when it doesn’t have a negative impact on the final product. I use a lot of maple syrup and honey, too, but when I’ve added either of those to nut butters in the past, it makes them weirdly thick and crumbly. Thanks so much for the feedback! :)

It looks so good! I’m looking at choco-hazelnut spreads for ages. Now I think I have to make one finally. Just I think we don’t have coconut sugar – would it be better to change to white sugar or brown sugar?